fletcher



J. G. FLETCHER. Artists Canvas-Stretcher.

No. 226,509. Patented April-13,1880.

- WITNESSES: Y IN'VENTOR: T

BY .M i

' ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB G. FLETCHER, of Washington city, District of Columbia, have invented a new and Improved Artists Canvas- Stretcher; and'I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention has for its object to provide for artists use an improved canvas-stretcher which shall have all the qualities experience has decided to be necessary or most desirable.

Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to provide a fastening which shall hold the frame-pieces rigidly in place or proper relation by preventing lateral displacement, torsion, or twisting, and shall also be simple in construction, cheap, and easily applied, and allow the stre cher to be easily expanded when required.

My invention is designed to meet a long-felt want in this line and it consists in construct-- ing the bars or pieces composing the stretcher proper with plain miter-joints, which are opened by means of wedges, and in providing said bars with holes and grooves for the purpose of receiving the fastening device, which is constructed of metal and approximately U shaped, and whe applied to the stretcher-frame is sunk or embedded in the wood flush with the surface thereof, all as hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, Figure l is a plan View of a portion of a stretcher (inverted) having its bars connected by the staple and strainingwedges inserted. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the stretcher, showing the bifurcated key or fastening device and wedge detached at one corner and applied at the other, but the wedge driven in only halfway. Fig. 3 is a cross-section on lineman, Fig. 2. Fig.4 isa cross-section on line y y, Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a cross-section on line 2 2, Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a side view of the staple enlarged.

The rectangular stretcher is composed of the four pieces A A and B B, whose ends have a plain miter-joint, instead of being connected by tenon and mortise or other form of socketjoint, as has been the usual practice heretofore. The device O, for fastening the said pieces to gether, is in the nature of a clamp or bifurcated key. It is constructed preferably of wrought-iron, and may be round, square, or of JAOOB Gr. FLETCHER, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

ARTISTS CANVAS-STRETCHER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 226,509, dated April 13, 1880, Application filed November 18, 1879.

other contour in cross-section. Its ends or arms a a, are parallel, and its body or middle portion, Z), is preferably straight, so as to be at right angles to the ends, as shown.

In order to prepare the frame-pieces A and B for application of said fastening device 0, the pieces are laid in proper position and connected by brads driven through the corners. Holes 0 and a groove, (1, connecting them, are then formed in the ends of the parts A B, at points contiguous to the inner angles of the frame, Figs. 2, 3. These holes 0 are made at the same distance apart as the arms a of the bifurcated key or fastening device 0, and when the latter is inserted its middle portion, 1), is embedded in the wood, and is thus flush with the back of the stretcher, Figs. 4 and 5. The canvas D is then secured to the stretcher in the usual way, and in order to give it the requisite tension by expanding the frame, wedges E are driven into the inner ends of the miterjoin ts, which, bein gheld together at the back by the clamps O,the first effect of the action of the wedges is to open the joints on the front or inner side, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, thus stretching the canvas as much as will be ordinarily required; but when the canvas has been stretched .to such limit the further eifect of driving in the wedges is to separate the joints on the back also, which can only take place by the arms of the clamps 0 drawing through the wood more or less, as shown in Fig. 5, which result is a safeguard against overstraining, and thereby destroying, the canvas.

The chief advantages of my invention, in respect both to the specific fastening device and the application of the same, are, first, that the device may be produced at minimum cost, may beapplied very easily and quickly, and the frame-pieces may also be constructed at minimum cost, since nothing but plain miter-joints are required; second, the fastening holds the frame-pieces connected so that endwise motion of any one of them, or lateral displacement, or twisting of the same are prevented-that is to say, the legs a of the fastener preventthe mitered surfaces separating farther than allowed by the compression of the wood, and also prevent the piece A or B from turning or twisting, while the body or middle portion, I), of the fastener, being embedded in the wood, preplicity of construction and minimum cost,

adaptation for easy application, and holding the parts of the stretcher-frame in the required relation, while permitting any required expan- S1011.

A stretcher provided with my fastening will retain its original form, in place of breaking, giving way, or becoming distorted, as usual when constructed with the ordinary form of 20 joint, and hence the painted canvas attached to it will be preserved with the least possible injury and for the longest time.

I do not claim, broadly, the employment of a bifurcated key for securing the detachable parts of a frame together, nor do I broadly claim embedding the same in the wood.

What I claim is- The combination, with the canvas-stretcher frame having plain miter-joints and provided with holes 0 and grooves 61, which connect them, of the wedges E and the metal fastening device 0, having parallel ends or legs connected by the portion 1), which lies in the groove d and is flush with the surface of the frame when said device is'applied, as shown and described.

The above specification of my invention signed by me this 13th day of November, 1879.

JACOB G. FLETCHER.

Witnesses:

AMos W. HART, SoLoN 0. KEMON. 

